On Thursday 29th March 2011, Edinburgh University Life Society were delighted to have Brendan O'Neill, editor of internet magazine “Spiked” to talk on the topic of
“Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide from a Humanist Perspective”
[40 minute talk, 20 minute Q&A]
Mr O’Neill introduced the talk by discussing current stories in the media about the ageing population and the fashionable “right-to-die” lobby. He went on to discuss how society has come to see human life as toxic and a resource-consuming burden that has no moral worth. He sees the population control argument as refashioned Malthusian thinking disguising a eugenic current to rid the world of unwanted old, disabled and 3rd world people. He proposed that legalising assisted suicide will be bad for sick, old people near the end of their lives who want to die, bad for sick, old or disabled people who do not want to die and bad for society as a whole. Mr O’Neill concluded by asserting that the right to die defiles the world itself and humanity itself by saying that suicide is a reasonable response to hardship and that some people are so toxic and burdensome that it would be a good thing to create a choice (so-called) for them to opt out of life.
"It is driven by entirely misanthropic anti-humanist outlook and any decent normal upstanding Humanist ought to fight against, tooth and nail".
For more information, see the Past Events section on the Edinburgh University Life Society webpage (http://www.edinburghprolifesociety.com/past-events.html)